8. Red Dawn

While Red Dawn has a few interesting concepts and ideas, and I see the appeal in the initial pitch, it's a story that, sadly, doesn't quite match the potential that it could have had. For the most part, it's a slow moving tale, where most of the characters just talk at each other, with little in the way of reward.

The plot sounds exciting: NASA land humans on Mars, where they find an Ice Warrior artefact, left behind when they evacuated the planet. Inside is, you guessed it, Ice Warriors! Sure, it's a bit Tomb Of The Cybermen-y, but it could be interesting, especially considering the Ice Warriors are much more morally complex than the Cybermen. However, after a fairly promising part one, the story gets far too bogged down in meaningless conversations about honour and intentions, and they never really amount to anything in the end. And the story is resolved in the least interesting way: with a pointless sacrifice and a big explosion.

The production on this is as great as most of the early Big Finish's: the actors are fantastic, particularly Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant and Georgia Moffatt, and the sound design and music are great. It's just a pity that the material they are given is so pointless and dull. Still, at least it's fairly short.

This is an average Big finish story in my opinion. There's nothing that makes it stand out in the range, especially the 1-50 Range as there as many classics in that section. I only got this as it was 99p on the Big Finish website and it's worth about that. The premise was an interesting one, however I didn't get the full force of what the writer (Justin Richards) was trying to do. The characters weren't very interesting and The Doctor felt quite bland to me in this one. If you want a classic to listen to for a cheap price in the 1-50 range there are so much more than this. The Holy Terror, to be precise. It reminded me of the Empress of Mars from Series 10 of New Who, if you loved that then there's a chance you may like this.

I appreciate a simple, straightforward adventure story, but this is a bit too slight. There are a number of good ideas in here, and the depiction of the Ice Warriors is excellent, but the overall story just doesn't work. Paul Webster doesn't make a very credible or effective villain, and the revelation about Tanya's origin makes no sense, and certainly doesn't explain how she knows details of Martian history and is able to operate highly advanced Martian technology. But it's not a complete failure by any stretch. The character of Zzaal is wonderfully written and performed. I only wish he'd had a stronger story to appear in.

This is Davidsons 3rd solo outing and this time teams him with Peri and it misses the mark again. This is not a classic, no doubt about it, but it is hardly the disaster that The Land of the Dead was or indeed some reviews depict. It is just, meh!

Justin Richards is the first returning writer and he tries to portrait the Ice Warriors as a group of honourable hero warriors, mistreated by the nasty human race. This sort of thing has been done before and to much better effect. For me the Ice Warriors work best as creepy militaristic aggressors and it’s a shame this wasn’t the form used here.

The Doctor and Peri are an unusual combination having only two TV outings together, her first swiftly followed by his last. They work well as a team and they have a few good moments, but in general there is too little for them to really bite into.

The supporting cast are so-so but not stunning. One notable is Georgia Moffatt, who has impeccable Doctor Who credentials. She is Peter Davidson’s daughter, David Tennant’s wife and played the Doctor’s Daughter in the new series. Here she plays one of human space explorers with a really silly back story.

The soundscape is also average. The Ice-Warriors have nice range of hissing voices which while different still sound too close to each other that they are required use their names in almost every line.

Ultimately, this just doesn’t work. Too plodding and too predictable. It’s not one you’ll rush to rehear, but it will pass the time in a rush hour queue.